Dale Cresap's blog

Do you practice an intellectually rigorous faith? Do not think that these concepts must be in opposition. Scholars throughout the ages have given serious thought to theology, and true faith will withstand scrutiny. You may find some things in your beliefs that don’t measure up, and find that they were not essential anyway. You don’t need to park your brain at the door of the church, but this is not the same thing as figuring everything out by yourself. You describe your faith as a relationship with me, but you normally apply rigorous thinking in the realm of propositional truth claims.

Do you have questions about your faith? You have engaged a subject that is so vast as to be comprehensive of all things and so consequential as to be the ultimate reality, but it does not lend itself to designed experiments, so it is normal that you would have some questions. Some churches will find your questions threatening because they do not have answers or seize too quickly upon inadequate ones. Yet I am not threatened by your questions. But at the same time I am not eager to answer them right away.

You read stories of my life and others from the Bible. What conclusions do you draw from them? For instance, when I fed 5000, do you think it serves to validate my claims of divinity? Does it have any significance beyond that? Does feeding the hungry resonate with you as something you should be doing too? Those who believe in me are called my followers, and your primary calling is to do the things I did. I gave you this assignment and promised to equip you to do the same works and even greater ones.

Have you ever flown on a plane? On a few airplanes the flight crew will wear parachutes, and military fighters are equipped with ejection seats. How do you view your salvation? Do you see it as a parachute to allow you to abandon ship and survive? Depending on your view of end time events you may see it as an ejection seat. This is a rather isolated and individualistic viewpoint. Do you see salvation as an escape from an irredeemable world? Is there another possible scenario that is larger and more inclusive? Continuing with the metaphor above, do you think I could make a safe landing?

I warned that many would come in my name that I didn’t send, and told my followers to take heed that no man deceive them. For when the faith grew and became popular it involved the risk that people would join out of mixed motives, or claim the name of Christ to advance their own agenda. Have you seen those who seem more eager to advance their own interests in my name than they are to be conformed to my image and belong to a Kingdom that is not of this world?

You know that you can’t change the past, but there are some things that can be applied retroactively, which is sort of like changing the past. For example, you could get a pay raise at work, and your boss could make it retroactive to some previous date, so you will get more money than you expected, because you had been working for more money than you realized. How do you view grace? Can you see that from the moment you call upon it, it applies retroactively to your entire past? Can you also see that it applies to the rest of your life going forward?

How do you describe your faith? Do you say that it is a relationship with me? Is there anything else involved? For this statement implies that you can do it on your own. Do you know Christians who have taken this approach, and wandered off into error or extremism? Some horrible things have been done by those who claim to be followers of me. Your faith places you in a community with all other believers, and beyond that to all whom I have created if you are willing to go that far. How large are you willing to draw your circle?

Are you familiar with the concept of line upon line, precept upon precept? This is an approach to studying the Bible, and it is taken from the Bible in Isaiah 28:10. Is this method the one you are familiar with from school, and find that it adapts well to studying the Bible? Can you think of an alternative approach? For if you read ahead to verse 13 what sense do you get of how pleased I was with this method of study? The purpose of your faith is transformation. Can you obtain this through the incremental approach to learning you were taught in the classroom? How else would you do it?

Are you quick to regard other people as evil? If you know the rules and they don’t, it may explain why they don’t follow them. In a court of law the ignorance of the law is a defense, although it is more commonly used as a mitigating factor in sentencing. This is consistent with my word in which the difference is between being beaten with many or few stripes. If you are a child of the light and of the day, be glad and rejoice in it. Others walk in darkness and their unawareness is not the same as evil.

Are you familiar with the concept of consolation? Do you think of it only in terms of a consolation prize; an award given to make you feel better about a contest you lost? The Biblical concept of consolation is more positive than this. Life involves unavoidable suffering. You would like the suffering to cease, but how often are you able to obtain this? Yet even as you endure afflictions and hardships I am present with you in them. This is the meaning of consolation, that I will sustain you, even in the midst of your afflictions.